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How To Build An Amazing Graphic Design Portfolio
If you are a full-time graphic designer or someone interested in dabbling in design as a side project in your spare time, it is important that you have a professional-looking graphic design portfolio to present your work to prospective customers. Check out Blue Sky Graphics if you want to build a portfolio and learn graphic design.
A graphic design portfolio is usually the only thing a customer can look at before selecting a graphic designer, which ensures that a portfolio is critical for demonstrating your design ability.
Additionally, similar to a resume, a graphic design portfolio includes required contact details and any case reports from previous clients that you want to provide.
Curate the finest work and demonstrate a range of skill
Ideally, your portfolio will showcase your sharpest, most exciting 10-20 designs; undoubtedly, someone reviewing your portfolio will not have time to look at additional work, and they do not need to if the first few projects are good enough. However, it is equally important that you demonstrate your agility to prospective customers. If you have dabbled with both logo design and video animation, it is a smart idea to include both in your portfolio.
Include a case report from an expert or customer suggestion
It is extremely beneficial to write a case study to accompany any website graphics. A published case study provides context for your idea, explains the challenge you were attempting to address by design, and details the method you used to arrive at a final deliverable. Building solutions require much time, effort, and repetition, and a written case study can aid in communicating the particular process.
To provide a compelling case study, consider including the project’s history, the challenge, the mechanism, the deliverable, and any subsequent steps. Use analysis, experience mapping, identity creation, wireframing, sketching, usability testing, and iteration in the method portion of your case study. Additionally, it would please prospective customers if you provide references from previous employers, as this demonstrates your expertise.
Describe the artistic process in detail
Each designer approaches client work uniquely – and the more a prospective client learns about your process, the better. It is important to provide detail so that guests can get a feel of how you approach problems and how your designs address real-world issues.
Additionally, providing a synopsis of the creative process will assist a prospective customer in determining whether you are capable of managing the complexity of their project. For example, they might be sceptical about your abilities to do graphic design for mobile before they read how you brainstormed and designed the templates for another client’s mobile site entirely on your own. Context is important in this instance.
Demonstrate non-client jobs or a side project.
Side assignments are an excellent way to show the ability to take action and manage several tasks concurrently. Additionally, they are an excellent way to demonstrate some of the most experimental, innovative concepts that you might not be able to demonstrate in your day-to-day work.
If you are just starting out, it is appropriate to have side projects or non-client jobs to demonstrate your capability and design to prospective clients. Consider including schoolwork, a logo you designed for your aunt’s company, or an internal design you developed for your current employer — hopefully, your sketches will allay prospective clients’ worries about your lack of work experience.
Create a logo for a brand you admire
Maintain a focus on the kind of content that you love creating. If you are especially skilled at designing logos and are often inspired by the logos used by actual brands, consider making a custom logo for a brand you admire. Consider some of these inspirational future Uber logos; although they were eventually rejected by Uber, they serve as excellent indicators of the designers’ abilities.
Contact local companies and start-ups to see if they need assistance with marketing campaigns or packaging materials
Reaching out to non-profits and small companies in your neighbourhood is one of the simplest ways to begin developing your client list. Consider doing mock-ups or drawings in advance to demonstrate your ability and vision to these companies. Perhaps you believe a neighbourhood diner might benefit from a new menu logo, or you would like to assist a gift shop with their online marketing materials. Ideally, these companies will agree to leave a testimonial on your portfolio in return for your services.
Build a creative brief for a fictitious website and graphic design materials for the fictitious company.
If the projects are sufficiently spectacular, prospective customers do not notice whether they were made by a fake business – in reality, they may be inspired by your innovativeness and imagination. Consider showcasing your abilities by creating a creative brief for a fictitious corporation that includes wireframes and drawings. In due course, legitimate businesses will take care.
Create content about your personal brand and make sure it is consistent with all of your personal marketing materials.
Take the time to maintain the consistency and elegance of your own publicity materials. Create a custom template for the website and incorporate it into other materials, such as your business card and resume. When a customer sees the kind of high-quality work you are capable of doing for yourself, they are more inclined to work for you.
What Does a Graphic Design Portfolio Contain?
We suggest that you only have the best work in your design portfolio. It is important that you only present jobs for which you are involved in being recruited. As a result, we suggest displaying 6-10 of your best designs. Include boring or unimaginative jobs solely to occupy the room. It is also important to demonstrate the flexibility and breadth of skills by providing samples of various types of projects.
Include, for example, different types of logos or wordmarks you have produced, as well as a few samples of website designs from various industries. The aim is to instil trust in a prospective customer that you not only have the ability but that you can also respond to a wide variety of design requests.
